Tea Party candidates take beating in US primaries, but still claims to set GOP agenda

Four years after making spectacular gains in 2010 midterm elections, support
for America’s right wing Tea Party appears to be flagging, but the group
takes credit for driving Republican agenda to the Right

America’s insurgent Right-wing suffered a bruising time at the polls last night as mainstream Republicans triumphed over more extreme Tea Party candidates in several key races ahead of November’s US midterm elections.

Four years after the populist anti-government Tea Party movement stormed the polls in the 2010 elections, their favoured candidates faired poorly on a night when six US states chose candidates in some of November’s marquee races.

With Republicans hoping to take back control of the US senate and render Barack Obama a lame duck for the remaining two years of his presidency, the GOP’s establishment in Washington has worked hard to neutralise fringe candidates on the party’s right wing.

The clearest evidence of their success came in Kentucky, where Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, crushed his Tea Party opponent, Matt Bevin, by a margin of nearly 25 points.

Mr McConnell’s victory came despite several no-compromise Right-wing groups, such as the Senate Conservatives Fund and FreedomWorks, giving their backing to Mr Bevin, an ultraconservative businessman who described his opponent as a “pretend” conservative.

The Kentucky result was echoed in the southern state of Georgia where another establishment-backed Republican candidate, David Perdue, the former CEO of Reebok, headed a field of seven candidates for the GOP senate nomination with 30 per cent of the vote.

In contrast, the two Tea Party-backed candidates were left bringing up the rear: Paul Broun, a Christian fundamentalist who described Darwin’s theory of evolution and as “lies straight from the pit of hell” and Phil Gingrey, a Congressman who ran anti-gay commercials, both had less than 10 per cent.

The demand for ideological purity on key issues such as tax, budget deficits, immigration and health care reform has seen the Republican party move sharply to the right in recent years, even as America as a whole grows more secular, socially tolerant and ethnically diverse.

Last October the Tea Party faction was blamed for forcing the shutdown of the US federal government for 16 days despite the objections of more moderate Republicans in the leadership that it would be a damaging, fruitless exercise.

The episode left scars and exposed the deep divisions within the party, however last night the emphasis was again on unity with both right wing groups and the Republican party leadership in Washington at least publicly pledging to pull together to win back the Senate in November.

“Now it’s time for Republicans to unite for victory in November,” said Matt Hoskins, the executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund which has infuriated the party leadership for funding right-wing candidates in a bid to unseat sitting Republicans.

FreedomWorks, fiscally ultra-hawkish group that supported the government shutdown in October and also backed Mr Bevins, grudgingly backed Mr McConnell, though took the credit upon itself for forcing him to the right.

“Competition always breeds stronger candidates, and there is an improved conservative candidate heading into the general election as a result,” said Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, in a statement.

Even before results were declared, John Boehner, the Speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives who has not disguised his frustration with the Tea Party elements over the government shutdown and blocking immigration reform, was determinedly emollient.

“I think the tea party has brought great energy to our political process," he said, disputing any idea of a rift between traditional Republicans and tea party-backed candidates, while also acknowledging the Tea Party’s success in driving the party’s policy platform to the right.

“There’s not that big a difference between what you call the tea party and your average conservative Republican,” he said. “We're against ObamaCare, we think taxes are too high, we think government is too big.”

In another closely watched race last night, Marjorie Margolies a former congresswoman whose son is married to Chelsea Clinton, failed spectacularly in her bid to return Congress when she was beaten in a Democrat primary for a Pennsylvania.

Her defeat by more than 20 points came despite the high-profile support of both Hillary and Bill Clinton – who cut an advert for Ms Margolies – giving the race some tangential bearing on the 2016 presidential contest in which Mrs Clinton is the early front-runner.